Beta-testing set to begin on Pirate’s Cove app

A long-awaited mobile ordering app for the Pirate’s Cove will soon be coming to Seton Hall University students’ smartphones. The app, meant to allow students to order their food remotely, is currently on schedule to begin beta testing any day now.

Sarah Yenesel/Photography Editor

In an email to The Setonian, Student Government Association (SGA) Student Life Chair Michelle Pan explained that the trial will run for one week and will consist of 20 Seton Hall students. The app is expected to help cut down on the often long wait times at The Cove by streamlining the ordering process.

“There’s been huge progress since we started this initiative in the Fall semester of 2017,” Pan said. “We had to not only create space in the Cove for the food but also develop and design the Boost Mobile app.”

The app is currently on track to be available before the end of the 2018 Fall semester, although Pan did not offer a timeframe as to when testing on the new app is set to begin.

Coming just on the heels of numerous other upgrades to Seton Hall’s dining program, the app will be yet another addition to the university’s initiative to modernize dining facilities around campus.

So far, these updates have included a complete renovation of the dining hall, the opening of a new café in Jubilee Hall, and a “Pirate Bowls” location in the University Center Living Room.

As previously reported by The Setonian, the app is expected to also bring a new “value pack” option to students in which they would be able to get a drink and a bag of chips for a swipe into the dining hall.

The news of the app has been met with cautious optimism from students around campus.

“I feel like it’s a great idea, but the food will still be made ridiculously slow,” said Rebecca Rutherford, a sophomore marketing major.

She expressed hope that the app would have a feature — similar to that available on the Domino’s Pizza app — that would allow students to track what stage their order is in, or at the very least offer a time frame in which their meal may be ready for pick up.

Frank Mabalatan, a sophomore double majoring in Accounting and IT, expressed similar concerns that Gourmet Dining Service (GDS) employees may have trouble delivering on orders with the new technique.

“I’m eager to see if GDS will be able to keep up with such a fast-paced system,” Mabalatan said. “If they can, then the student body would have one more thing to enjoy on top of the other GDS improvements around campus.”